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- tejagudluru@udo-now.com
About Us
Dear Friend,
I am from Hyderabad, the southern part of India. My full name is Gudluru Venkata Sai Teja, A.k.A; Teja Gudluru, but you can call me Teja or T
I believe that I have been blessed with a special purpose in this world and that is to help professionals grow exponentially in their careers. I also passionate about animal welfare and that is a major part of who I am.
It means the world to me that you have landed here and decided to read about me. I am looking forward to interact with you and form a meaning partnership to help you grow in your career. I tried to keep my story short, but I failed. This is quite a long read. I appreciate your patience in reading through this.
I truly value your time and I am looking forward to engaging with you, using various channels.
I come from a very conservative middle class family and growing up as a child in Hyderabad, I have seen both my parents work very hard in their life to make ends meet. I have always seen them give more than their 100% at their job, sometimes even sacrificing time with family. I always wondered if life was all about waking up, rushing to work, come back home tired and then focus on waking up the next day to repeat the same.
I often asked my parents if my life would be the same. The response was always the same. “You will become what is pre-ordained is in your destiny. But remember, You have to live by your word come what may, be honest, value the fact the someone entrusted you with a job and give your 100%. No matter how difficult the situation and no matter what is at stake, never trade your value system for anything.”
I soon realised that the world works very differently and perhaps has transformed in to a complex environments since the time of my parents working. Today, while I have figured out smarter ways of manoeuvring the complex work environments and grow through them, I am truly grateful for the value system imbibed in me by my parents. My Code of Honour is what propels me in my life and the one thing I am sure is that how grave or difficult the situation, My code of honour is not for trade!
Coming from a typical South Indian Telugu family, it was fairly obvious for everyone around me that I would become an engineer. I barely managed to become one. 2 years in to Engineering, I was lost. I wasn’t sure if I could survive, leave alone excelling at it. By Final year, I had many backlogs and I had to turn my life around to be able to complete it. But given my academic performances, I was not eligible to get a job through campus placements. So technically I am an engineer but don’t use most of that knowledge today.
Later in my life, I realised that more than a degree, it is important to be a life long learner. So I went ahead and acquired a lot of skills with specific courses of my choice. One of those significant courses is from IIMC in Growth Strategies for Businesses.
My first job was for an offshore business of one of the largest banks in the world. Everything was new to me. The culture, the ways of working and even the basic etiquettes of business seemed like from another world. It was difficult for me to stay relevant in the organization amongst thousands of employees. Luckily I had great mentors and I could wade through the challenging part of any corporate organization, to stay visible and grow consistently. Being an introvert, there were many challenges. I struggled to be “Visible” in the organization. Connecting with new people was a challenge. Communicating freely in meetings and group gatherings was exhausting. But I soon realised that these skills were as important and sometimes more important than technical prowess. So I got help, learned new skills and built on my reputation as a person who loves to be around people. Finding the right mentor was the key and I was fortunate to find them.
I only worked for one organization in my whole career as an employee. After several projects in more than 5 counties, multiple promotions later I quit my job in 2010 as an Associate Vice President.
As I reflect back on my 13 years entrepreneurial journey today, I feel blessed and grateful. It isn’t a fairy tale. It is one that is filled with ignorance, blind trust in the wrong people and lack of entrepreneurial skills.
Most part of my entrepreneurial journey has been failures after failures. I had lost a lot of money and some of the most basic lessons of entrepreneurship for me came with the baggage of financial losses, failed relationships and self-confidence. So a couple of failed start-ups later, I founded CommSure Knowledge Solutions, a premier Ed-tech company (We called it an e-learning company back then). After some great years with the company, I exited the company successfully in 2018.
It was in 2018, that I decided to pursue my passion as Leadership Development consultant. I have been privileged with some esteemed organizations as an empanelled facilitator. This saw me travel around the world in Far east Asia, Asia, Middle East, USA, UK, Africa, Europe and South America. To date, I am proud to have a 100% client retention percentage with over 60+ clients. I have been privileged to have met and work with over 30,000 professionals.
I have had an absolutely enriching experience interacting with professionals from all walks of life, in multiple industries. In order to take my passion even further, I have been incubating a start-up called UDO Now app, an instant expert advice platform connecting Mentors with seekers globally. As I prepare to work hard to meet my goal of enhancing at least a million careers, I have founded Virtual Guru Online, to individually connect with professionals and help them grow in their careers, make more money and become industry experts in their respective fields.
Between being a introverted middle class boy to working with thousands of professionals across the world, there is a lot that happened. It’s not a fairy tale, it is a hustle tale.
I am on a mission to accelerate at least a million careers.
Contact
Career Growth Mentor
Hyderabad, India
tejagudluru@udo-now.com
Copyright 2024 by Teja Gudluru.
